Aspects of the invention relate generally to the design of temperature-compliant integrated circuits (ICs). More specifically, embodiments of the present disclosure can provide a method, system, and program product for designing an IC layout to predict temperature changes from self-heating, and modifies the IC layout automatically and repeatedly to determine whether the temperature increase of a fabricated IC will remain below a self-heating threshold during operation.
Each IC of a particular device can be made up of billions of interconnected devices, such as transistors, resistors, capacitors, and diodes, located on one or more chips of semiconductor substrate material. The proposed design of an IC can be represented as an IC layout, otherwise known as a “mask design” or “mask layout,” in which a complete integrated circuit is represented as a group of simple planar and/or three-dimensional geometric shapes. Computer-implemented solutions such as manufacturing models can at least partially govern the design, fabrication, and other processing steps of IC components used in a given device. Conventional manufacturing models may rely upon predicted values of temperature and/or voltage during deployment. These predicted values are also known as the specification, design, and/or nominal operating temperature or voltage. These temperatures and/or voltages are typically set at the time of design, based on the IC layout, to predict operating conditions such as ranges of temperatures and voltages of the IC after manufacture and deployment.
Actual operating conditions of a device can vary significantly from design conditions. These variations can alter the field viability of a device which includes ICs therein. Thus, the true quality of a device may differ from what the manufacturing model of its manufacturing line predicts. In some cases, variability in actual operating temperatures can stem from “self-heating” of the integrated circuit. Self-heating refers to a phenomenon in which the temperature of an IC increases during operation because of its underlying physical properties, such as the size, shape, and material composition of substances which make up the IC. As ICs become smaller and power density per area increases, temperature increases caused from self-heating continue to grow and in some cases can become greater than their predicted or desired levels. Thus, modeling and reducing the effects of self-heating plays an important role in managing the lifespan and quality of products which include one or more ICs.